True
Vibe Records is proud to
present the incredible
Rufus Wonder, as this
veteran singing sensation
spearheads a call to action in
the sensational song track titled
“Uncle Sam’s Goin’ Broke.” He
leads a diverse cadre of
artists in this compelling
social protest song which
takes listeners through a
description of the national
state of affairs and some
comedic relief, followed by
spoken word artist Paradise’s
suggested resolutions and
Afro-centric perspective.

This ambassador of classic soul is also featured
in the lighter, somewhat humorous track “Playaz
Blues,” which is a parody on an aging player’s
life. Both tracks will highlight the upcoming
True Vibe Records album
Mucho Mas
Jazz Funk Hip HoPoetry.

Not only does
Rufus Wonder bring his
special talent to this project. He also brings
a wealth of experiences that span his long
fascinating musical career. He has performed on
stage in the same shows with The Temptations,
Dennis Edwards, Miriam Makiba, Billy Preston,
Betty Everett, Carl Carlton, blues giants Little
Milton and Little Willie John, Inez Jones, Sugar
Pie De Santo, the jazz great Joe Williams, and
Lee Williams.

After a long hiatus his musical career was
resurrected in the early 2000s, when he suddenly
found out that he had fans overseas in the
United Kingdom, and that his classic single “Under the Moon,”
which he recorded back in
1966 for Detroit-based Lando Records was
popular. “Richard Higginbotham, of
DEPAG, LLP and son of the famous R&B
singer Tommy Tucker of “High-Heeled
Sneakers” fame, and brother to blues singer Teeny Tucker, told me to put in a Google
search using my name,” he recalled. That was
valuable information that enabled Rufus
to get original copies of his own recording that
he had not promoted for a long time.

The relationship that developed between
Rufus
and U.K. music industrymovers and shakers led to him being
invited to the first Soul Trip USA event,
which was held in 2004
Soul Trip USA Festival in Los
Angeles. A U.K. movement called
Northern Soul
founded by Kev Roberts coordinated this
recurring event so that U.K. fans of classic
soul artists can come, meet, and enjoy their
heroes perform in person. Rufus was
among 101 classic soul artists invited,
including the Persuaders, Archie Bell, Kim
Weston, Bobby Freeman, Edna Wright of the Honey
Cones, Mary Wilson of the Supremes, and others.

“I sold one copy of my vinyl
‘Under the Moon’
(a single, not an album) for $150 at that event,
and another fan offered me $500, but I had run
out of copies by that time,” he reminisced.
“Then during the 2006 Soul Trip USA Festival in
New York (actually held in New Jersey), “I sold
another original copy for $250.” He continued.

Rufus’s
career had reached its peak earlier when, “I got
a contract with Lando Records,” he explained.
“Detroit child prodigy and later Lando Records
co-owner Sugar Chile Robinson signed me.”

Born in Bossier City, Louisiana,Rufus Wonder
has had a storied career in the music business.
At the age of 12, he moved to Oakland, California
and later moved to Fresno, California
where he began his musical journey in the high
school choir. In the Navy, he formed a singing
group called the Blenders. Rufus
Wonder and the Blenders performed all over
Asia. After the military, Rufus joined a
group called The Riffs, named by Bill
Norris, a drummer playing with famous musician
Earl Grant, and they performed many concerts in
the Los Angeles area. And it was after The
Riffs dismantled that he made his mark on
stage in San Francisco and
many mid-western cities, including
Chicago and Detroit.

During that time, “I performed with a Chicago
theatre group called The Little Theatre,
which was sponsored by Negro Charities of
America,” he recalled. From that
experience, “Jimmy Daniel, a promoter
from the Shaw Artis Agency out of New
York picked me up to take me on a one-niters
tour with the Jimmy Daniels Review from
Chicago to Saint Louis, Springfield, Boonville
and Moberly, Missouri, Indianapolis and Muncie,
Indiana, Decatur, Illinois and back to Chicago,
where I performed with the (renowned) house band
The Mar-Keys, who made the hit record
‘Last Night.’” William Bell, who made
the hit record, “You Don’t Miss Your Water ‘Til
Your Well Runs Dry” and Christine Kittrell
were also a part of that tour. “Christine
Kittrell had worked with James Brown, Little
Richard, Louis Armstrong, B.B. King, Count Basie,
John Coltrane, and Johnny Otis,” Rufus added.

“I was also picked up by promoter
Dale Warren
to perform in Milwaukee
with Harvey Scales (who wrote “Disco
Lady”) and the Seven Sounds. (The
renowned) Motown choreographer Charlie Atkins
approved me for the Detroit
booking agency Rogersand Rogers
Theatrical Enterprise, with which I
performed my first gig in Cleveland, Ohio
at the Pinwheel Lounge,” he said

Prior to that experience, revered blues singer
Alberta Hunter (a contemporary of fellow
blues singer Bessie Smith) took Rufus
on tour to various night clubs, including to
Gary, Indiana where he met and performed
in the same show with Sugar Pie De Santo.
And throughout his career, he has won numerous
talent shows, awards, and received accolades
while living and performing in San Francisco,
Oakland, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, and
other cities. From early on to later in his
career, accomplishments include winning a
contests at TV Channel 11 in Hollywood, UCLA,
L.A.’s Oasis and California Night Clubs, and the
First Stop Night Club in Jack London Square in
Oakland, just to mention a few. He is also an
annual participant at the HAL (Heroes And
Legends) Awards held at the Beverly Hills Hotel,
at which founder Janey Bradford (co-writer of
the classic his hit “Money” with Berry Gordy),
Berry Gordy, Smokey Robinson, George Duke, Lenny
Williams, Martha Reeves, Jackie Jackson, Brandy,
Freda Payne, the Temptations, Will Smith, and
more have attended.

He later became an entrepreneur and ran a
successful graphics and printing business
for many years before losing his eyesight in
1999. But that has not slowed down this
eternal optimist. “My great aunt and uncle
raised me, and they taught me how to read and
write before I started school,” he asserted.
But more importantly, “the taught me how to
think positively,” he concluded.

He renders rich melodies on his alto saxophone
reminiscent of Cannonball Adderly.
He can swoon the ladies with his fluidity,
smoothness, and deep suave tone similar to popular
tenor saxophonistGrover Washington, Jr.,
and his technical skills show the influence of alto
sax legends James Moody
and jazz pioneer and bebop co-founder Charlie Parker.
But he can also throw down some soul and funk with
the likeness of tenor sax luminaries Stanley Turrentine, Maceo Parker,
and alto sax great David Sanborn.

Accomplished musician and Berkeley, California
native Ben Ball,
who holds a Master of Arts Degree
from prestigious Berklee College of Musicin Boston
and plays many instruments, is an unsung hero ready
to explode on the music scene. He has paid his
artistic dues over a long period of time. But more
importantly, he has the power to move listeners on
any instrument that he gets his hands on. Just
listen to the three solos on the classy Latin Jazz
instrumental titled “Afro-Cuban Sax Brothers” during
which he plays alto sax, piano, and soprano sax. In
addition, his soul-stirring alto sax rendition on
“Bold and Beautiful” is proof in the pudding that he
can blow some down home funk and hang with the very
best of horn players. Fans can also check out his
blazing solos on “Give It All U Got!” “Uncle Sam’s
Goin’ Broke” and the sexy spoken word piece
“Connections,” which also features his Berkeley High
School and Berklee College of Music classmate and
vocalist/ spoken word artist Raquel Ramsey,
during which he plays a sultry background tenor sax
and two solos. All these tracks can be enjoyed on
the upcoming True Vibe Records
album titled Mucho Mas Jazz Funk Hip HoPoetry.

It didn’t take Ben Ball
long to find out what he wanted to do in life. “I
was five years old when I decided to play music,” he
asserted. “My dad was a pastor, so I was in church
a lot and I liked the sound of the choir.”
Ball’s parents,
originally from Tyler, Texas,
migrated to the San Francisco Bay Area
shortly after the World War II mass exodus when many
African Americans came from southern states to
northern states to fill the shortage of manpower for
jobs. His mother and two older sisters sang in the
church choir, but “it was my oldest brother who
really influenced me to play,” he continued. His
oldest brother plays keyboard, trumpet, bass guitar,
and lead guitar. And it was that lead guitar that
first fascinated Ball
at his young tender age. “Then I started playing
drums at age six as soon as I could pick up some
sticks,” he said. “I tried a bunch of instruments
before I found the clarinet in fourth grade.” “I
mostly liked the trumpet, but I didn’t have the
chops to play it,” he added.

He wound up doubling on both clarinet and alto sax
for three years until the sax prevailed and the
clarinet fell to the wayside. The young prodigy
honed his musical skills through eight years of
rigorous training in the University California, at Berkeley’s Young Musicians
Program.
He also developed his artistry even more as a member
of the highly regarded Berkeley High SchoolJazz Ensemble
before the Monterey Jazz Festival Foundation
awarded him a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music.
There he studied and “kicked it” with the likes of
trumpet master Roy Hargrove,
tenor sax giants Mark Turner
and Joshua Redman,
who attended nearby Harvard University.

One of his more unique experiences was playing with
an African funk band in New York City
called Ibrahim World Beat,
a group that included musicians from East Africa
(Kenya to be exact) and WestAfrica
(including Nigeria).
He has also performed with jazz immortalDonald Byrd, as well as San Francisco Bay Area legendsEd Kelly, Charles Hamilton, Bill Bell,
and others.

Ballis currently holding it down as the group’s anchor
on keyboard, as he is celebrates 10 years of playing
with the adult professional Ben Oni Orchestra
and its related multi-ethnic Youth Orchestra. The Youth Orchestra
is a program that trains and develops young
musicians from elementary school up through high
school. Under the auspices of the Church of African Descent
and held at Richmond, California’s
Grace Lutheran Church,
it was founded and is currently led by educator,
minister, and youth mentor
Dr. Curtis Shaw,
who is providing this special opportunity for many
youngsters since many financially-strapped local
public schools have discontinued their music
programs.

To new and upcoming musicians he advises them, “to
learn how to play all the right notes, stay locked
in synch with the band, and don’t get sick (so you
won’t miss out on gigs).” Regarding his own special
musical gift and development as an artist he adds,
“I thank God, my moms, my pops, my elementary school
music teacher and mentorJesse Anthony,
my brothers and sisters, and a shout out to Mac Money LP.”

"In the beginning was The
Word. And The Word was with
God. And The Word was God.
In essence these very first
words of the bible are all
you need to know. The whole
rest of the bible and all
other scriptures are but
variations seeking to give
you a greater understanding
of this one divine truth:
The Word is God! Everything
begins and ends with the
word. This has been true
since the very first Poet
and Spoken Word Artist said,
"Let there be light!" so I
can write uni-verses across
the skies at night. So the
most revolutionary thing
black people can do right
now...the most revolutionary
thing every person on this
planet can do right now...is
stop cursing! If you don't
want your communities to be
cursed, stop cursing your
communities! If you don't
want your planet to be
cursed, stop breathing
curses into your planet's
atmosphere! If you are a
true follower of Ahkenaton,
Jesus, Buddha, Krishna,
Confucius, Mohammed, Moses,
Marcus, Marley, Selessie,
Emerson, Shakespeare,
Gibran, Ghandi or any of the
other immortal poets and
spoken word artists you like
to brag up on then -
REPRESENT! Step ya game up
and stop cursing! I
guarantee you that out of
all the collective texts and
public discourses on record
for these great men you will
find as a common denominator
nary a profane utterance
amongst them! Because they
all spoke about and strove
for "A Word Supreme"! In my
opinion poetry is the
opposite of profanity, as
much as music is the
opposite of noise, and the
ultimate goal of poetry and
every true poet is to
eradicate all things profane
from the face of the earth
and manifest Paradise! Let
me show you what I mean.

"When I was a child I spoke
as a child." But the more
you become a man of power
and influence the more you
have to "watch what you
say". Men, the onus is on us
because where ever the head
of the fish goes the body is
sure to follow. And every
child who comes into the
world cursing and kicking
and screaming and punching
the air is reenacting the
Fall of Man and the Original
Curse. "Aw bleep!" may be a
natural reaction to the
realization of Paradise lost
for grown folks or for
babies when pushed out of
the comfort zone of the
womb! But babies holler and
curse because it's the only
survival mechanism they
know, and because they have
yet to learn how to speak
the language and articulate
their feelings and desires.
And sadly some never learn
otherwise because their
parents curse the children,
the children turn around and
curse their families, and
the family goes outside and
curses the community; and
the next thing you know
there's an exodus of the
very people who are most
capable of doing something
for the community,
proclaiming, "Man, I had to
get outta there! That place
was cursed!"

And always I find it amusing
when I hear poets say they
aren't going to read a
particular poem because
there are children in the
audience. There are always
children in the audience!
"All the world's a stage"
and there are ALWAYS
CHILDREN IN THE AUDIENCE!
Even if you can't see them,
there are always precious
and impressionable souls in
the audience and in the
vicinity of influence of the
spoken word. What difference
does it make if a child gets
the Killer Curse Virus
directly from you or from
somebody you gave it to?
Your words don't stop
speaking for you just
because you stop speaking
them, ever! Which is why you
can remember what people
said years ago! So the
Killer Curse Virus,
poisoning the water of the
human soul, is passed on
from generation to
generation.

I call profanity the Killer
Curse Virus because usually
just before a killer kills
somebody he curses them
first because when you
dehumanize somebody it makes
it easier to kill them! The
Killer Curse Virus is the
deadliest dis-ease known to
man - ever! It can be
transmitted to and from even
a two year old, through the
air waves, radio waves,
telephone, internet, films,
books, CDs and by every
public medium known to
man! It's been said that
there's only six degrees of
separation between any two
individuals on the planet.
So when you shake your head
in pity and disbelief when
you see a young brother
being arrested for murder on
the 10 o'clock news, are you
sure that the Killer Curse
Virus he used to pull the
trigger can't be traced back
to you!?!

There used to be a time not
too long ago when you would
rarely hear a man curse in
front of a woman. Even if he
were the foulest and most
despicable man on earth he
still might have the decency
not to spit ugly in front of
one of nature's finest
creations. And I find it a
tad hypocritical that so
many people try to paint
Michael Jackson and catholic
priests as the poster boys
for child molestation, when
far worse than molesting a
child's body is molesting
his mind! As bad as it is to
molest a child's body, when
a grown man teaches a child
to curse and be vulgar not
only is he adversely
affecting that child's
future, but he could be
jacken whole generations
with his indiscretions! And
it used to be, just a few
years ago, that you would
rarely hear a woman curse!
It seemed incongruent to see
a beautiful woman open her
mouth and show her behind!
Women were too dignified and
graceful and cognizant of
the fact that they are the
first teachers of the
children of the world and,
thus, hold the future of
humanity not just between
their hips but also between
their lips! Today however
women and children are some
of the biggest carriers and
distributors of the Killer
Curse Virus; and often seem
proud to verbally contribute
to the sorry state of the
world we live in today!

There is a direct historical
correlation between the rise
and fall of civilizations
and their esteem or lack
thereof for the gift of
speech, language and
communication. The Original
Blessing was and is The
Voice! being able to speak
dreams, worlds and universes
into existence. The Original
Curse, abusing the Gift of
Speech, was the root of
evil. The perpetuation of
the Original Curse is the
spider's web that is shot
out from person to person
until it entangles the whole
world! So, in this shout out
to and for humanity, I
reiterate, the devil can
have no say in this world
unless we let him speak
through us; And the most
revolutionary thing you can
do right now...is upgrade
your communication
skills...and stop cursing.
Word up!

The history of the spoken word in Black
America began with the angst and first
anguished
cries of the tortured slave when Africans were first dragged across the
Atlantic, kicking and screaming, to the shores of the New World Stage.
The first couple of this historic movement, I think most scholars would
agree, had to be Phyllis Wheatley and Paul Laurence Dunbar. Phyllis
Wheatley is heralded as being the first black person invited to the
white house. Dunbar spoke Ebonics, a black dialect of the English
language, before anybody new what Ebonics was. And I've noticed that on
the internet today Dunbar's style of expression is making a comeback;
people in the high speed technological world we live in today are using
words like "dis", "dat" and "dem" instead of "this", "that", and
"them" just to save a little time.

The Harlem Renaissance of the 30s and 40s
gave birth to "The New Negro", James Weldon Johnson, who coined what was
to become the Black National Anthem, "Life Every Voice and Sing", and
to a man who may be considered the Poet Laureatte of Black America,
Langston Hughes, and his signature piece, "I've Known Rivers". The Black
Power Movement of the sixties blessed us with the likes of Don L. Lee,
Sonia Sanchez and scores of others, including Nikki Giovanni, who became
such a household name she may have been our first rock-star-poet. Marvin
X is widely accredited with starting the modern Black Arts Movement in
the U.S. Teaming with such notables as Ishmael Reed, Ed Bullins, Ted
Joans and Leroi Jones (now Amiri Baraka), who has been pertinent from
before the time he wrote one of the most important books in my life,
"Blues People", to the controversial, "Somebody Blew Up America" and
beyond; "If racism don't kill me, capitalism will". He and Bob Kaughman
were the key brothers behind the The Beat Movement in the Fifties that
gave rise to the likes of Beat Icons, Jack Kerouac and Allen
Ginsberg. But during the Sixties there emerged a new militant
revolutionary group called, The Last Poets. When I first heard these
guys I thought, "Oh my God! Can they say that in America!?!" "Blessed
are those who struggle to survive because oppression is worse than the
grave! Better to die for a worthy cause than to live and die a slave!"
I told Umar, from The Last Poets, personally, "You guys helped me come
into my manhood. If you guys could say what you said, so poetically, I
had to do better and step my game up!" However the apex and plateau of
the spoken word movement may indeed be Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have
A Dream" speech. He articulated what every enslaved and free black
person in the United States had been feeling and thinking and dreaming
for over 400 years!

Billie Holiday's, "Strange Fruit", has been
called the first protest song in America! It would be followed by such
anthems as, "Say It loud! I'm Black And I'm Proud!" by James Brown. Gil
Scott Heron's, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", Marvin Gaye's,
"What's Going On?" "The Message", by Grand Master Flash & the Furious
Five, Public Enemy's Fight the Power!" and now, "I Love Everything About
You, But You!" by yours truly, has been called amongst other things,
"The song of the century" and "The new international black anthem." .

Who knew when we all heard that first big
rap song by The Sugar Hill Gang, "Rapper's Delight", what would
follow. To today's first spoken word couple in Black America would
probably be, Amiri Baraka and Maya Angelou. But today we have a new
spoken word art form called Slam! Def Poetry Jam's Cable TV show has
brought poetry to the mainstream media for the first time ever! Also out
of New York and carrying the torch from the Last Poets was a group
called The Nile River Gods; and from that group the number one selling
spoken word artist worldwide, Talaam Acey. There are a number of young
up and coming spokenwords artist right here in Oakland starting to
receive national acclaim; including Wordslanger, a firebrand poetess,
Ise Lyfe, who said, "We done went from being freedom fighters to being
dumb fa free", and Nercity, "Marvin Gaye was the Tupac of your parents
generation." Indeed, Marvin Gaye may not only have created the first
seamless album with, "What's Going On?", where each track flowed
smoothly into the next without stopping; he may also be the Godfather of
Rap! Hip Hop is the lifestyle and culture started in the late 70s, early
80s and Rap (or flow-etry, spokenword poetry rhymed to Hip Hop beats) is
its highest art form. There's this one instrumental on the album
"Trouble Man" which predates any other Hip Hop beat that I can think of.
And the first Rap Song may indeed have been, "Funky Space
Reincarnation", on Marvin's, "Hear, My Dear", double album which slipped
under the radar of most black music enthusiasts, but in my opinion is
one uv his funkier albums! I want to take up where Marvin left off, with
a brand new sound! A kind of Holy Hip Hop or Talk Music, if you will,
that's so fresh and so clean that, although up until this time no spoken
word artist has yet to break the glass ceiling and hit the mainstream,
with your help...Paradise Freejahlove Supreme and JazzFunkHipHoPoetry
will usher in a new era of great music!

From my one man show:
"My
Dr. King Speech, 'I Still Have A Dream': What Dr. King Might Say
If He Were Alive TodayParadise Freejahlove Supreme

I have come to you today....to
answer....a question. A question that I know is on many of your
minds...and that is at one and the same time a cry of despair
and a plea fa hope. I have come to you today because I know that
your collective minds are in a quandry. Your spirits and morale
is sagging, and many of you are wondering if all our blood sweat
and tears, all our efforts to realize the American Dream have
been in vain.

I have come to you today because I
know that many of you are realizing perhaps for the first time -
that racism is not some little puppy that you can just pat on
the head and teach new tricks overnight. But it's more like an
enormous and stubborn ol' pit bull filled up with millenniums of
hate.

I have come to you today because I
know that many of the promises that were made to us have been
reneged upon. And much of what we've fought for and against in
recent years have been retracted, revised and reconstituted. And
although poverty and homelessness in many places all over the
country today is worse than it was 40 years ago in the old rural
south...the answer to your question is, yes: I STILL HAVE A
DREAM!

I still have a dream although it
seems that we have lost complete control over our young
people today, and some of our own children are poisoning and
terrorizing our neighborhoods with the kind of drugs and
violence that fulfill the purposes of white supremacy.

I still have a dream although
many of my own people have mistaken my dream of brotherhood
through integration, for assimilation and the loss of
self-identification; and have become like scattered little
black ants trying to avoid being trampled by the ubiquitous
feet of the oppressor.

I still have a dream because I
never have and I never will give up on my people. A people
upon whose broad and capable shoulders much of the destiny
of the entire world has been entrusted.

I still have a dream because
I've been to the mountain top...and mine eyes have seen the
bigger picture, its process of development, and the paragon
of glory that has only just begun to embrace us as a people

.

I still have a dream but
today I come to you with a new hope! A dream not so much
for a nation, but for the wisdom, power and salvation
of self-realization! A self-realization in which we use
our books and religions as guides to remind us who we
are, and not as barriers we allow to come between us and
the Divinity we are all striving to become.

I have a dream that someday
we'll look upon the whole universe as our place of
worship, we'll make love the common denominator of all
our religions and try to worship the Supreme in
everybody and everything all of the time!

I have a dream that someday
soon we'll bring our faraway Gods and Heavens home, by
realizing them on the inside and actualizing them on the
outside!

I have come here today to assure you
that someday in the not too distant future freedom will ring all
over this great land! Freedom will ring from the great memorial
of the Twin Towers of New York to the Great Pyramids of Cairo,
Egypt! Freedom will ring from the foothills of East Oakland to
the sand hills of the Middle East! Freedom ring from the
abandoned neighborhoods of Detroit to the abandoned peoples of
New Orleans and the Gulf Coast! Freedom will ring on all the
southsides! South Philly, Southside Chicago, the South Bronx,
South Central L. A., all the way down to South Africa, let
freedom ring! And I am as sure of this as I know the sun is
rising somewhere out there even though you can't see it right
now! Freedom will ring until one day we'll all be able to sing
as they did in that ol' negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at
last! Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last!